


Possibility

by EgoDominusTuus



Series: Chasing the Dawn [7]
Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Bonding, Danse Daddy Fluff, Danse is a sweetheart, Family, Father/Son, Fluff, M/M, Other, Spoilers, Sweetness, relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-08
Updated: 2016-06-08
Packaged: 2018-07-13 01:06:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7131839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EgoDominusTuus/pseuds/EgoDominusTuus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Quinn isn't sure how Danse will react to the child that he's bringing home, but the Paladin may surprise everyone.<br/>--<br/>Even though this is part of a series, it can be read as a standalone fluff piece.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Possibility

I wasn't sure how Danse would react to the small child that hid behind my back, his voice a soft sound as he whispered his awe about seeing the Commonwealth for the first time. I still wasn't sure how _I_ felt about him... but the tiny synth thought that I was his Father... and for everything that he was... he looked just like my son.

For everything that he was, and all that Shaun had done to use him against me, he was innocent in thinking that he was mine...

For everything that he was, he was my flesh and blood, and when he'd begged to go with me, I hadn't had the heart to leave him behind at the Institute as the building was set to explode into ruins.

Shaun had spoken to me in the afterlife, telling me of my little synth child, and how he'd programmed him to believe that he was mine; he'd begged me to give him a chance, and my insides were still frozen to the fact that I'd let Shaun perish inside of the exploding building. I was numb to it - to the fact that my child had grown into a monster.

I was numb to it, and a small part of me wondered... could I make things different for the boy that stood behind me?

There were so many questions that I couldn't think to answer - he and Danse were both similar in so many ways. Both synths, both cast out from the home that they'd known. The only difference was that Shaun was innocent of the latter...

"I'm really glad that you brought me with you, Dad... but you seem nervous." He was so astute to emotion, it was almost unnerving. But his small hand stretched up, digits slipping into my own. It was my eyes that stared back at me, but it was Nora Quinn's smile... and I could do nothing but squeeze his hand and feel a warm smile slip across my features in answer to his own.

"I'm glad, too. Now, stay close to me, buddy, okay?" I held his hand tight, and took a deep breath - I hadn't spoken to Danse about bringing him here. I hadn't spoken to Danse about the fact that the little boy was a synth. I had told him what Shaun had done, the horror of finding out that the son that I'd been chasing after was nothing more than a lie...

But I'd never really told him how I felt about the synth child at my side. All that he'd seen was the pain in my face when I'd spoken about it.

All that I could do was hope, with the change that I'd slowly seen coming over my Paladin, that we could make this work.

"Dad, who is that sad man?"

Shaun's small voice brought my attention to the beach house in front of us - the stairs crawled up to the first floor and led to benches so that we could look over the ocean. I'd spent countless hours meticulously building the home for Danse, so we could have a safe place to come, a place where we wouldn't be chased by the Brotherhood men and women who held a grudge against us.

Spectacle Island had been that place, and Danse leaned on the bench now, overlooking the ocean - we'd brought down Maxson, but the reinstated Paladin had found himself homesick... and not for the Prydwen.

We'd come back here.

"That's..." My lover? My husband? I looked down at the ring of my finger, and I know that a ring glinted on Danse's hand, too. The same ring. "Danse. He's very important to me." Shaun was too intelligent for his own good - far more intelligent than any child should have been. I knew that he'd figure it out. "That's who I wanted you to meet."

"Why is he so sad?" Shaun sounded concerned, and I could see his green eyes searching the chiseled face, Danse's faraway expression telling me that he was thinking of things that he only just managed to speak to me about.

"He..." But Danse stood then, and I found my words cut off. His eyes spilled over my face, and I saw a soft, warm smile spread to the rich brown hues... and then they dropped to the small hand holding tight to my own, spilling to Shaun's little face that bore such a striking resemblance to mine that I knew he'd draw the proper conclusion.

Something flickered through that dark gaze, and I wasn't sure what it was. Confusion - maybe anger? Maybe something altogether different. My lips lilted up into a nervous smile, and I pulled Shaun closer to me; protectiveness flooded my chest in nearly palpable waves, and I realized then exactly what I felt.

The boy was my son - synth or not, he thought he was my son. And I felt like he was. I'd die to protect him...

He was the little boy that I'd tried so hard to find... and I wanted Danse to understand, if he'd let me... that I wanted him to be _his_ son, too.

"Hello, Mr. Danse." Shaun's voice was small, nervous, but full of warm intrigue. I watched his lips turn up into a smile, and my chest ached - because it looked like Nora Fortune; she and her cousin shared a smile. It looked like my long dead love, and I couldn't help but to pull him closer still, to know that he was a precious, eternal child, and I needed to do everything that I could to keep him safe.

I had a serum that I'd gotten from Lorenzo Cabot, though I'd never taken it.

_Yet._

I thought about it now, for Shaun. I'd thought about it for Danse - though his outsides aged out, skin becoming a bit more weathered over time, I didn't know if he'd ever actually age out. If he'd ever actually die. He was the perfect, eternal father for the boy standing beside me, for everything that I knew.

If he'd accept him.

From Danse's expression, I knew that he could see the trepidation sweeping across my gaze.

That trepidation seemed to spark something inside of him, and I watched as he stood. I didn't want to make him walk down the stairs - I wanted to show Shaun inside of the house. If things turned out well, I was hoping that Danse would help me build him a room soon, attached somewhere to the second or third floor. It was a wooden house by the sea - it was crude, it was rugged, but it was our home...

It was a place that had been filled with so much love, and I didn't want that to change now. With my hand firmly in his, I led Shaun up the stairs, and I could feel the hesitation in his step as he read my anxiety spilling off of me.

I was sure of Danse, but I also knew that his training was ingrained deep in his mind, maybe even deep in his programming. I wasn't sure why the Institute had made my lover - though I was thankful for it every day. Finally, we came to stand at the top of the stairs, and I felt Shaun's little fingers in my own clench tight.

What surprised me was when it wasn't my voice or Danse's that rang out, but Shaun's.

"Hello, Mr. Danse." He smiled, and it was a tentative thing, but sweet nonetheless. "My Dad seems really anxious about us meeting, but," he turned, and his green eyes were sparkling with childish innocence behind all of that intelligence as he looked at me, "I already like him, Dad. Because he makes you happy, right?"

Tears stung at my eyes, though I knew they wouldn't fall. My throat still burned with it, and I felt my lips waver into a quivering smile. The innocence of children, even fabricated children, never ceased to amaze me. If nothing else proved to me that I was right in bringing Shaun with me, it was the smile on his face and the innocence and acceptance with which he approached my relationship with Danse.

I watched the Paladin in front of me process the information that he was being presented. I watched as it dawned on him that the little boy at my side was the synth child that I had told him about... and I saw emotions flicker across his features so quickly that it was hard for me to read them all.

His eyes raised back up to mine, and for just a moment, I was afraid that he was going to turn Shaun away. I watched as something altogether different spilled across his features, and it brought my heart to a near standstill.

Danse knelt, and it was a slow and gentle movement. He stuck his hand out, and Shaun took it with a small smile. His brown eyes were full of softness, full of acceptance, full of _warmth_ as he looked at Shaun... and if I wasn't mistaken, they were stinging with tears. "I've heard a lot about you, Shaun. It's nice to finally meet you." He smiled then, and it was the most beautiful expression that I'd ever seen my Paladin give. I hadn't thought about it before - I'd never really talked to Danse about children. I knew that discovering he was a synth had taken away all possibility of that happening, but now... I hadn't even thought about what Shaun would _mean_ to him, if he accepted him. "I try to make your Daddy happy, and," he took a breath, and it made his shoulders shake, "I'd like to do that same for you, if you'll let me? You're Dad's a pretty busy man," his hues flicked up to mine, and there was such a depth of emotion there that it made me nearly tremble. "But I bet we can get this island in tip top shape for when he finally gets to settle down. What do you think?"

There was silence - for a moment, there was only silence. And then Shaun flung himself forward, wrapping small arms around Danse. My Paladin froze for just a moment, his eyes wide, the expression in them worth all of the pain that we'd been through. Then, slowly, he wrapped his arms around  _our_ son and hugged him tight. 

"That sounds great, Mr. Danse." A pause, and then, "Are you my Dad's... husband?"

Brown eyes flicked instantly up to me, wide, full of question, and I couldn't help but to laugh. I knelt down and took Danse's hand - the hand that had the ring to match my own. Shaun turned his head to look, and I nodded. "He is, Shaun. He's... your _other_ Dad."

There was silence for another beat, and then Shaun smiled, and it was sweet and genuine, and the innocence of a child. "I guess I'm twice a lucky, aren't I?"

Danse moved then, his hand twined in my own pulled me forward so that we hugged Shaun between us. For a moment, my heart nearly beat from my chest - it was perfect.

It was more perfect than anything I'd ever expected to have. It was the family that I'd always wanted... and the family that I never thought I'd get, when the bombs had dropped. Shaun - the real Shaun - had done one thing, one selfless thing, for me before he'd died...

He'd given me my family, and with Danse's arms tight around us both and my strong Paladin nearly in tears about getting to have a son of his own, I knew that it was a debt that I could never repay.  


**Author's Note:**

> There will be a story between Danse With Me and this, clearly (Taking down the Institute, my dears, and some things in between.) This is spoiler free for THAT story, save for the fact that we end the Institute... but we knew that was going to happen. Who knows, it may even go a little different than we are thinking here. Regardless, I needed some soft Danse-Daddy Fluff <3


End file.
